My Rambling Thoughts on Teaching and Learning

PD

Earlier this year I started a course on edX titled “Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning”. The title intrigued me. I want to be considered an ambitious teacher. So I started the course. Module 1A looked at Ambitious Instruction in Elementary Literacy… It covered ideas like higher order discussion and project based Literacy Learning. My takeaways […]

I recently started a Coursera course entitled Foundations of Teaching for Learning. I have to admit that I signed up because I was interested in unit 3, 6 and 8 of the course (I’ve only just started unit 2) and felt that I’d struggle with those units if I didn’t complete the other 5. I […]

Managing Multiple devices is not an easy process and on last count I have a crazy 6 mobile devices (iPad 1, iPad 2, iConia A700, iConia A500, Nexus 7 and an iPhone) I use them all every day because they all have a different purpose for me. So how do I manage them. I choose […]

There has been a lot of talk lately about best practice in teaching. As teachers we are always seeking to be the best we can be in the classroom. We try to implement new technologies, new teaching practices, new pedagogies… We do many hours of professional reading, attend hours of professional development and develop our […]

For work at the moment we are reading “Flourish” by Martin Seligman. The book looks at Positive Psychology and creating your own Happiness. At the begining of Chapter 2 it recommends that you remember the face of someone who is still alive that did or said something which changed your life for the better. You […]

I have just returned from Expanding Learning Horizons (ELH11) where I presented a paper on Problem Based Learning (PBL). I love teaching using PBL as it means I can take a step back and allow the students to take control of their learning. Here is the description of the session… At a time when we […]

There is no other way to explain it. Our school year starts on Monday that is two days away. As I sit here in the dark writing, its midnight on Friday night and I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep because I have never, ever, EVER felt so unprepared for Day One in my teaching life. […]

Last week I attended the BEA (Business Educators Australasia) Conference, the conference was really good. It’s always interesting to see conferences for various subject areas and the information you can gather. In a previous life I was a business teacher and it’s nice to network with teachers who have brilliant ideas in the teaching of […]

I had the opportunity yesterday to assist at a PD session on the use of Word, PowerPoint, and Audacity. Things that I’m sure a majority of teachers take advantage of everyday sometimes to the detriment of learning. Now this was a session for those who felt they had a beginner level. I was surprised. I […]